Robert PANSART (Beauvais, 1909–1973, Beauvais), attributed t - Lot 288

Robert PANSART (Beauvais, 1909–1973, Beauvais), attributed to. The Abduction of Helen. Decorative set consisting of 18 panels. Eglomized glass with silver and gold gilding, mirror, under-glass painting. Unsigned. Dimensions (approx.): 272 x 260 cm. (A few chips and missing pieces along the edges, particularly at the corners; wear and missing silver plating on the backgrounds; in good overall condition) Robert Pansart, alongside Max Ingrand and Pierre Lardin, was one of the great French glass artists of the 1940s and 1950s. He collaborated with interior designers Jean Pascaud, Jules Leleu, and Marc du Plantier, as well as with master metalworkers such as Raymond Subes, Gilbert Poillerat, and René Drouet. He is known for his contribution to the engraved glass decorations on the ocean liner *France*. With this major decorative ensemble, Pansart chose to use modern techniques to depict a major theme of Greco-Roman culture: the abduction of Helen by Paris of Troy, after the latter had given Aphrodite the Apple of Discord, thereby crowning the goddess as the most beautiful of women. This series complements the “Judgment of Paris.” Both series were most likely commissioned for a private mansion or the entrance to a building, as the size of the smaller of the two designs appears to have been tailored to the constraints of the wall it adorned.